


to bloom in your heart

by pinkyvestar



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Light Angst, Sort Of, gays can't talk, implied mihyo and sanayeon, me projecting my romantic shortcomings and addiction to tea onto tzuyu for 2000 words straight, not sure if it's college or what though, probably some sort of school idk???, sorry my mistake 2000 words gay, why is that not a tag but "Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners" is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 08:25:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19787050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkyvestar/pseuds/pinkyvestar
Summary: Anyone who loves and is loved by their partner can send and receive mental messages to and from them.Anyone who falls in love with both people in a relationship can hear everything.This probably works out perfectly fine for most people. Tzuyu is not most people.





	to bloom in your heart

Tzuyu is studying for her finals with Mina and Dahyun when it happens.

Mina is lecturing both of them about restriction endonucleases, and Dahyun is busily taking notes while Tzuyu zones out. She’s already taken her biology notes and she doesn’t see the need to think about it any more than she has to. 

“I’ll have to give Chaeyoung the notes,” Dahyun says, and Tzuyu snaps to attention. Chaeyoung is Dahyun’s girlfriend and Tzuyu’s best friend, and she’s studying art in Italy for the semester. (Tzuyu and Dahyun both know that “studying art” is an excuse to not study anything else, so they help her whenever they can- Tzuyu through email, Dahyun through telepathy.) 

“I can email them to her later,” Mina offers.

Dahyun shrugs. “I’ve been meaning to say hi anyway, and I might as well tell her before I forget.” Before Tzuyu can protest that she wants to talk to Chaeyoung, too, maybe a little too much, Dahyun closes her eyes and _concentrates,_ sending a mental message to her girlfriend.

And Tzuyu hears it clear as day. 

She nearly jumps, banging her elbow against the headboard of Mina’s bed. Dahyun looks at her, confused. “Are you okay?”

“Yes!” she stammers out. “I’m- fine. Just- just clumsy. Sick! I’m sick!”

Mina frowns. “You seemed fine a minute ago.” The look of concern on her face is almost unbearable.

“I am fine,” Tzuyu says, almost tripping over her own words. “Perfectly fine. Better than fine!”

Mina starts to say something, but Tzuyu doesn’t hear. Dahyun is sending another message to Chaeyoung- _hey Chaeng, did Tzuyu tell you anything about feeling sick? She’s acting weird all of a sudden._

“HEADACHE,” Tzuyu yells, suddenly unable to handle this room anymore. She’s sure that if she breathes or Mina says something nice or Dahyun sends _one more message_ she’s going to erupt and burst into tears. “I have a headache! I’m going home! Bye! Don’t text me!”

She nearly flees the house, slamming Mina’s door behind her. It occurs, belatedly, to her that she has nobody to pick her up and her dorm is nearly a mile away and Jihyo is going to be there, anyway, and she won’t have any peace and quiet for a long time.

It’s better than staying there, anyway, some small, sane part of her brain decides.

(Tzuyu has a rule against crying in public and she breaks it.)

-

Jihyo isn’t home when Tzuyu finally arrives, sweaty and panting. She needs to work out more, probably, but she has bigger problems right now.

(Of course, Tzuyu solves them by drinking more tea than is strictly necessary and trying to huddle under her covers to cheer up. She didn’t think it was that bad, she really didn’t. It was just a _teeny tiny_ little crush on her best friend and/or a _minuscule_ amount of attraction to her best friend’s girlfriend, and Tzuyu could deal with it, really she could. She’d had a crush on Sana freshman year and she hadn’t heard Sana’s thoughts or Nayeon’s, although maybe that could be because they didn’t know each other then. Either way, she’d gotten over it and everything was fine. 

But nothing was fine now, and she didn’t know what to do about any of it.)

When Jihyo comes back from class, Tzuyu does her best to ignore her, which is kind of hard because Jihyo is… well, Jihyo is Jihyo. She asks Tzuyu at least seventeen times if she’s okay and offers to make tea despite the fact that there are six teabags in the sink already. When Tzuyu doesn’t respond to her attempts at comfort, Jihyo settles for playing the most cheerful music she can find. (Tzuyu puts on headphones.)

-

 **sana:** tzuyuuuuuu are you okay? nayeon says that jeongyeon says that chaeyoung says that dahyun says that you’re sick 

**tzuyu:** I’m fine. I want space, please.

 **sana:** you said please!! im so proud of you 

**sana:** but seriously though are you ok

 **sana:** you never get sick

 **tzuyu:** My immune system is fantastic.

 **tzuyu:** It just doesn’t work right now.

 **sana:** ok then

**chaeyoung:** tzu tzu how are you?

 **chaeyoung:** i’m trying out new nicknames btw

 **chaeyoung:** we haven’t talked in a while

 **chaeyoung:** dahyun says you’re sick. are you sick of being without me?

 **tzuyu:** yes (UNSENT)

-

After Tzuyu’s third day of moping her way through classes and trying to ignore all the concerned thoughts that aren’t hers poking their way around her head, Mina corners her as they’re both leaving class. 

“Chou Tzuyu,” she demands, “I know something is up, and I know you’re not sick, and I’m not letting you talk your way out of this.”

Tzuyu tries to push past her friend. “Excuse me, I’m highly contagious. We can text later.”

“Jihyo,” Mina says, “is not sick in the slightest, and she is your roommate.”

Tzuyu has no good response for this, so she sighs. “Fine. I’ll talk if you get me tea.”

Mina sticks out her hand. “Deal.”

They find themselves at a bizarrely upscale bubble tea restaurant where Mina can order fries with ketchup and Tzuyu can order tea as black as her soul (it has lychee jelly in it, but that probably doesn’t mean anything about the state of her soul). She sips her tea spitefully in silence, wondering what will happen if she just refuses to talk to Mina unless she buys Tzuyu more tea. She doubts her suffering means that much to Mina.

Mina breaks the silence eventually. “You like Chaeyoung,” she says without any hint of a question in her voice.

“You’re very assertive today,” Tzuyu says, trying to deflect. “Extremely assertive. It’s like I’m talking to Jihyo. Are you just Jihyo in disguise? Is that how you knew I wasn’t contagious.”

(Tzuyu decides she shouldn’t be allowed to talk whenever the subject of her feelings come up. She inevitably embarrassed herself.)

Mina laughs. “I did discuss this with Jihyo. She told me to be assertive.” She pokes at a fry. “I’m not very good at it. Just tell me and then we can all go home. Jihyo didn’t plan further than this.”

“Why didn’t she talk to me herself?”

“She says that every time she tried, you put on headphones and started playing Eclipse so loudly that she could hear it.” This is true, but Tzuyu didn’t know Jihyo could hear her music. She files this away as something to remember in case she needs to annoy her roommate in the future. 

Tzuyu sighs, seeing no way out of the conversation. “What is it like hearing someone else’s thoughts? Can you block them out?”

“It’s weird,” Mina says thoughtfully. “But it’s nice. I can only hear the thoughts that Jihyo wants me to hear and vice versa, and we talked about when to do it and when not to do it so I don’t get random messages in the middle of the day. I guess it’s harder when they don’t know to block you out.”

Tzuyu starts to protest that she doesn’t hear their thoughts at all, what is Mina talking about, but gives up. Her friend is too smart for her own good. “What am I supposed to do?” she says instead, wincing at the way her voice comes out- she sounds like she’s heartbroken and she hates that because she isn’t, she really isn’t, it’s just two crushes and she can deal with it. She doesn’t know why she asked the question when she knows the answer already- wait for her feelings to go away and never say a word about it to Dahyun or Chaeyoung ever, because how embarrassing is it to fall in love with develop crushes on your close friends? 

Mina shrugs and stirs her ketchup thoughtfully. “Talk to them, presumably.”

“I can’t do _that_!” Tzuyu protests. “You’ve seen how I act when I try to talk to people about my feelings.”

“I’ve also seen how you act when you ignore your feelings, and that involves pretending you have the plague and hurting your eardrums.” 

Tzuyu can’t argue with this, but she tries. “What if I do have the plague, though?”

Mina ignores her. “Look, Nayeon and Momo are planning some sort of party to celebrate Chaeyoung’s return. If you don’t make an attempt to talk to them on your own, Sana is probably going to try to spike your tea and lock you in a room with them, so. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Tzuyu wrinkles her nose, but she believes Mina. “Fine.”  
-

Tzuyu is the designated driver.

Nobody in their group drinks very much anyway, but she in particular has a tendency to sit in the corner and sip what Dahyun calls her neverending flask of tea at every party. This party is no different- she’s early, as usual, so she finds a place where she doesn’t think Dahyun and Chaeyoung will notice her and hopes for the best. 

It’s barely half an hour in when Sana and Nayeon start doing something that’s either whispering with each other or making out- Tzuyu suspects the latter- because she sees their legs nearly intertwined on the other side of Momo’s counter and oh _gross_ they’re definitely making out because now there are noises. Grabbing her tea as quickly as possible, Tzuyu retreats to the closest room with a door that she can find (she thinks it’s Momo’s bedroom), not caring whether Sana and Nayeon notice her. She is just _so done_ .

Unfortunately for her, Momo’s bedroom is also the place where Dahyun and Chaeyoung are hiding out, and it looks like they’re… playing cards? And talking. Very loudly. Tzuyu really should have noticed that they were there.

Chaeyoung looks up when she sees Tzuyu, and proceeds to hug her so tightly she thinks her bones will break. “TZUYU! I’ve missed you so much why haven’t you been texting I have stories to tell you-”

Dahyun grins at her from the other side of the room as Tzuyu attempts to hug Chaeyoung back. She smells like oranges. Tzuyu likes it.

“You dyed your hair,” she says faintly, although she’s not sure who she’s talking to. Chaeyoung is no longer blond and Dahyun’s hair is a shade of blue that shouldn’t be pretty but _is_ somehow.

“Yeah,” they both say at the same time, and there’s an awkward silence for a few minutes before Chaeyoung breaks it with a story about another Chaeyoung she met in Italy and how she saved the second Chaeyoung’s love life, which Tzuyu isn’t really paying attention to because they’re both here and she isn’t spontaneously combusting so it’s okay, probably. 

(Until it isn’t.)

Dahyun wins the card game- what are they even playing? Chaeyoung says, almost thoughtfully, “You know, Mina told me you had the plague. Why did it spread to your phone, too? You didn’t reply to any of my texts.”

“Or mine,” Dahyun adds. “We’re your _friends_ , Tzuyu. We’re worried. We were trying to figure out how to get you to talk to us.”

“I know,” Tzuyu says, and promptly starts to cry.

It’s only a little bit of tears, she’s not sobbing or anything, but it’s still crying. And she still hates it.

Then they’re both hugging her and she feels a little bit better knowing that Dahyun’s hair is tickling her face and the smell of oranges is everywhere. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly, but she’s not sure what she’s sorry for.

“Don’t be sorry,” Chaeyoung says, oddly choked up. “You idiot, Chou Tzuyu. We love you. Don’t be sorry.”

“Not as much as I do,” she says, because apparently once she starts talking she can’t stop. “I hear everything you two think to each other. Did you know that? It’s horrible. I’m ruining the romance of a century and all I can think about is how horrible it is for me.”

Dahyun’s arms tighten around her. “We kind of figured, Tzu. You started acting weirdly the minute I sent a message to Chaeyoung. And you’re not that great at keeping secrets.”

“And you’re not horrible,” Chaeyoung adds softly. “Not in the slightest.”

“Oh,” says Tzuyu, and starts crying again.

“You know,” Dahyun starts, sounding more like a philosopher than someone comforting her friend. “You’re really pretty, Tzuyu.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Tzuyu forces herself to say through tears. It’s absolutely sobbing this time.

“And smart,” Chaeyoung continues. “Mostly. And funny. And I had a crush on you in fifth grade.”

“You _what_ ?”

“What we’re trying to say,” Dahyun says, “is that you really can’t hear the thoughts unless the person likes you back.”

Tzuyu blinks, shocked out of her crying. “Wait, what?”

“You weren’t aware of that?”

“Nope,” she admits. “Not in the slightest.”

Chaeyoung starts laughing, and if Tzuyu weren’t currently trapped in the scent of oranges and a curtain of blue hair, she’d probably be giving her the exact same confused look that Dahyun is. “I just- we could really have avoided all of this if the government didn’t make information hard to find, huh?”

“Are you sure you didn’t go away to become an anarchist?” Tzuyu mutters, and Dahyun starts laughing too, and Tzuyu decides that maybe everything _is_ okay, because she’s warm and she has tea and, more importantly, she has the best friends (maybe more than friends?) in the whole world. They haven’t finished talking yet, but she has a feeling that it’s going to turn out fine.

(Tzuyu refuses to thank Mina and Jihyo for any of this.)

**Author's Note:**

> title from loona's eclipse, also the song tzuyu was listening to but i'm too lazy to do links. also not edited bc im a coward so if you see any mistakes lmk!  
> this is my first twice fic! i hope everyone enjoyed- please leave thoughts/questions/suggestions in the comments!!


End file.
